“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true.” – Terry Goodkind ๐๏ธ
GOALS THIS WEEK: Celebrating and realizing the year is almost through.
Last Week: Taking stock and making it through the three birthday pile up in the end of October.
This Week: Want to make some more strategic plans and think about what to cut out to make time for paperwork.
HEALTH OVERVIEW:
Mental Health: Feel like almost at peace with the year, kind of want to do MORE.
Physical Health: Fighting off flus, drinking tea, pretty comfortable, but not all the way normal.
Social Health: Trying to ignore my friends more and do more paperwork, or hang out “smarter”.
LIFE JOURNAL:
“Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.โ
– Roberto Assagioli
โThere is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.โ
–Mary Anne Radmacher
Saturday: Last week we came home from camping. This week putting sunflowers in, it was cool did about 50, but, definitely need to weed that garden further… these Mexican Sunflowers are pretty, but their leaves make great fertilizer and they create a great farm ambiance which is food for the soul. The bright yellow is such a healing color for my heart, I’m surprised the heart’s colors are not officially yellow. This garden is on a steep slope, I’m not an expert at working with that, but I think perhaps those grid messes filled with soil or gravel would shore up paths and plant levels…
Sunday: Last week we had my daughter’s friend over. This week a lovely Halloween party after going to the zoo for Halloween pictures and a different friend stayed over, who we hadn’t had over in a long time. The party was so beautifully done with glow sticks and buckets, tons of food, a spooky trail, trick or treat, a memorial altar with candles. It was so cool and so thoughtful. My kids didn’t want to wear their costumes, I should try to remember not to get them expensive ones, because they can’t tolerate being uncomfortable. It’s a time of year death is on my mind, but it’s nice having company in the fall because I like to be a hermit in the winter.
Monday: Last week, we started playing Pokemon cards online it was a cool thing to start doing, I didn’t realize how well made they made the online system. This year Day of the Dead rolled into Halloween then ever before, but it was nice singing with the kids, bringing out our dead pets and butterflies lights, and experiencing a celebration of our dead that was actually fun, I guess it replaced the Obon we missed, where we would have danced around and remembered our ancestors in the summer if it hadn’t been canceled for the 3rd time by the pandemic. Good riddance it seems like to shutdowns that I don’t think were done in a smart, effective way. If there are no masks in 2023 it will be better than 2022, I didn’t know I liked showing off my face, but I guess I do and I know I like breathing well in hot weather and not having one more thing to remember that is a fight with my kids.
Monthly Garden Budget
This is for the pond, I hope to repair it. $35 for a 100-foot cord. $25 for the electrical spike, so $60 of electrical that you don’t even notice in a pond. Tape to fix the leak that has been on my plate all year bothering me at the back of my mind $17, new top peice for the the waterfall $38 and $83 so like $197 for pond repair/upgrade.
$38 for the train garden edging.
For the garden we haven’t started yet, $20 of decor to try to kick off the theme, $25 of veggie beds that will still need soil.
$30 of grafting stuff for more avocado-tomato experiments at least the greenhouse is back up so I have somewhere for these kinds of tools to be.
So I spent November’s budget on Halloween Night, but mostly I made these notes to see how long it takes me to install this stuff.
Tuesday: Last week started cleaning up the office after camping. This week the house could use some more cleaning. Use the edges and value the marginal is the permaculture principle for this month, maybe I can use that to help me clean up the house not only to help with the garden.
Wednesday: Last week we had a music week at the beach. This week was wonderful day, we did karate three times, we did giant bubbles. It was kind of painful how nice of a day it was. It’s painful feeling the peace and joy and knowing it’s a high water mark, or thinking that. It’s painful thinking those not with us are gone and we can so easily forget them and be in the moment and someday we will be gone and other people will party like it’s their birthday like we did today. I don’t know what makes it painful, but it is painful. It was nice seeing kids not usually happy, happy, seeing kids that got to know eachother more opening up, it was just a nice day with clean water and good company and abundance of everything good from art supplies to laughter to help to good weather. The kind of day that spoils other days.
Thursday: Last week I did an installment of a train garden. This week was much different, visited a friend, noticed my garden was growing. It’s so rainy today, it’s quite soothing, but really makes me feel like staying inside. I didn’t do a lot of outside farming, but I did research crop rotation and think about what I wanted to do.
Friday: Last week we did some drawing for once! I had been wanting to do that for a long time. Got two tubs of yard waste off a fense, but it seemed difficult to get started, kind of a chaotic day with the yonger kids and emotional one with the older ones. The garden is doing well overall though. I learn a lot from group thinking and have a lot of fun, but it also kind of keeps me from reflecting. Some times I feel like I need silence to catch up with all the words I’ve said, heard and thought throughout the day or week. I’m grateful to have friends and community, it gives me perspective and insight and new ideas, but also I feel like there are too many good ideas and too few good actions for my taste and I want to make sure we don’t get side tracked as a group more than I want to be a part of as an individual. I get scared to loose track of plans vs ideas and jump from idea to idea without further details, planning and action, that’s not something I’m interested in chasing or encouraging, it’s not something I value and although I’m guilty of having those tendencies I want to make sure I commit to being more consistent and focused bit by bit rather than less consistent and focused. It’s human nature to want to do a lot, but it’s not the path to the future I want to bite off chunks and spit them out or choke on them.
Another week bites the dust… and another one’s gone.
Secret Forest to Farm
Cherry Blossom – Waiting for cold germination. โ
Lavender – Cold stratified, germinated via heat mat single-side paper towel and light. The seedlings look fine. ๐๐ผ
Sunflower – Germinated in 3 days after 24 hour soak. Grown. Distributed. Growing well. ๐๐ผ
Morning Glory – Germinated in 1 day via cup of water to paper towels > grow bags > Distributed. Growing well. ๐ฑ They look good some are vining now. Some pest damage on the leaves, center holes medium size.
Roma Tomato – Germinated in 2 days via paper towel. Grown. Distributed. Some early blight! Some that went into the community are growing fruit already. ๐๐ผ
Clover, Alfalfa – For the Hilo Garden A. ๐ฎ
Blueberry – Germinated in a few weeks paper towel method, spouts are so tiny, but doing well.
Raspberry – Germinating…
Koa – Germinated first week and kept stagared germination.
Something new this week: Buying fountain repair stuff, I’m excited to try to fix that.
Something good this week: The kids enjoyed the slime and bubbles. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t…
Something unexpected: The strange happiness of watching pumpkins grow.
Born to Be Alive 